Julep Julia and Orly Oui.

Julia is on the pointer and ring finger, and Oui is on the middle and pinkie. Pretty identical when all is said and done. Oui was more opaque, and generally easier to apply, but the end result is basically the same.

Click pictures to enlarge

Orly Androgynie and Julep Patti

Patti is on the pointer and ring finger, and Androgynie is on the middle and pinkie Androgynie has more of a dark brown base, and its glitter is colorful. Patti is black with silver bits. Patti also has more glitter pay off than Androgynie. But, Androgynie is more opaque and only required two coats, where Patti needed three. Close, but not exact, but Patti is a good compromise if you really want something similar to Androgynie.

Click pictures to enlarge

Orly Oui and Androgynie were released in 2011, and are easily some of my favorite polishes. Recently Julep released some colors that look really close to those two, and I decided to compare them together. I'm very happy with Oui and Julia. Julia is a great dupe for Oui, but Patti falls a little short in the dupe department, but on its own it's beautiful.

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Orly Oui

"Project Re-Swatch"

I'm got behind in my posting for Project Re-Swatch. Oops! I have a good reason, I swear, but I wont burden you all with it unless you really care to know lol. It's nothing serious, I promise. I swatched about 6 colors today, so I should be set for a bit at least the rest of the week.

 If you read any posts about this polish from earlier this year/late last year you will know that it is one of my all time favorites. The same goes for Mermaid's Tears which I swatched earlier today. I can't believe I only have these half decent swatches of two of my favorite polishes! I've work them both quite a lot, I just never got around to swatching them I suppose. As with most glitter/shimmers, I had issues capturing the shine on camera. I took a video indoors yesterday with it on. The lighting was perfect, and as always, this is true to color. Also, there is no sound.

Orly Artificial Sweetener - Swatch

Pink Frenchie

I really like mixing up a french manicure. This time I did a french tip with either French Affair or Raise Awareness by Essie, I can't remember which, and then put Orly Fifty Four on top. It was so pretty, but I took it off since I did it when I was without a quick dry top coat. So sad.

Orly Androgynie

Adrogynie is part of the 2011 Holiday Soreé collection that Orly released not too long ago.  I originally thought the black would be more clear than it was, but it really wasn't so bad. It took 2 coats to become opaque, and it didn't cover up the glitter and flakies that the previous coat had, which is niiice!

There are several different colored glitters in this mix. As with most glitters, it looks much nicer in natural sunlight, where the colors just shine through. The wear was iffy, this was taken after only a few hours worth of tip wear. This was also the second time I applied this color. The first time it only took about an hour for a nice sized chip to appear on my left thumb.

Removal: Not as bad as a normal glitter nail polish, but still a pain. I find that the flakies have a tendency to stay on my nail after the varnish is removed. I used a base coat, but apparently it wasn't enough. It didn't stay on for long, just a little bit of extra scrubbing with the cotton ball, and it came off eventually.

Overall, I would say it's a good buy. I haven't seen anything like this color, and it is very pretty to have. Just not great for long wear.

Hope you had a great new years. Toodles!

Top 5 for 2011

These are the colors that I kept reaching for, and just fell in love with this year:

1. Orly Oui - Can I talk about this one enough? Nope, never!!! This one will have a special place in my collection. It's from the 2011 Holiday Soreé collection from Orly.

2. OPI Mermaid's Tears - I was on a hunt for this one for a while. I am so glad I found it! Thank you Disney ♥

3. OPI Planks A Lot - I don't know if I like it more as a toe color, or a hand color. Either way, I am in love with this shade of purple.

4. Essie Nice is Nice - I wore this after my honey moon, and on my toes during school. It made me so happy, it's such a beautiful purple.

5. Essie Too Too Hot - My go to summer color. This color was part of their 2011 summer collection. I will deffinately be wearing this next summer.

I'm thinking that next year I will be doing a Top 10 for 2012. I wont be doing a top 5 for December. Another idea I had: Top 5 for the seasons. I think that will be a lot better than doing it monthly.

Good bye 2011, you have been a great year, and I hope 2012 will be just as good if not better. Happy New Year.

Ramble Ramble

I went to Ulta today, looking for nail polish, of course. I was very naughty today.. I'm on a ban. I just can't help it!!! I had a $5 off coupon, and China Glaze was buy 2 get 1 free. I can't pass it up!!! I was looking around for Butter London. I couldn't find it for the life of me. No idea where it was hiding. I look at one of the displays, and guess what I see:

OPI Pirates of the Caribbean collection.

Ugh. Seriously? I go to Disney to get some of these colors, and NOW Ulta has them in stock. Buttheads. Refer to these posts for my frustration explained: Me and Me.

Anywho, I keep looking, and looking. and OMG I FOUND ZOYA!!!!!!!!! I said "forget you Butter London", and picked up Minka and Stacy. I am so excited. I think I will apply Minka tomorrow. Or tonight, I'm not sure.

I also saw these, in an attempt to put them back in the right slot:

Yeah..... needless to say they confused me.


So, when we go to Bed Bath & Beyond I poke around the nail polish section. This is why I do not, and probably will never own Essie Bangle Jangle:

The one on the far left is the one I shook. Ugh. No way the formula is good.



At the end of the day, I left with 5 nail polishes, all from Ulta:

China Glaze: Poetic, Mistletoe Me!, and Sex On The Beach.
Zoya: Minka and Stacy.

I plan on doing a NOTD with all of these, but MM and SOTB will have to wait till after Christmas. I've given them to my mom to put in my stocking for Christmas. Makes my naughtiness seem a little better. Right?

Frenchie-Oui

I love Oui, if that wasn't obvious. I decided to make it into a french manicure!! I've been doing a frenchie for the past few days, and unfortunately I want a solid, plain color. I'm thinking about Chinchilly. It's such a nice grey.

OMG I am falling in love with Zoya colors. The only thing keeping me from ordering these nail polishes (aside for my ban) is that I HATE HATE HATE paying for shipping. I've always been like that. Whenever I would need another order from Clinique, I would wait for them to send me an e-mail saying that they had free shipping for the next few days. I think I'm going to save up, and buy a bunch of Zoya in bulk. I may wait and see if they do the same thing as they did last year for Earth Day. Idk, I just want a lot from them, and I want it to be worth it, with the whole shipping thing and all.

Do you like the Mickey ornament? I wanted a prop, and my mom just put this one on the tree. It's so cute! Here's another of my manicure:

So, until next time, Toodles!!

Orly Oui - FINALLY!

Ugh. Right after I put it on and took pictures I took it off. Oh geeze I am straaange...

First I want to share this picture that I took yesterday:

No macro lens used haha. Ugh. I'm going crazy! Yes, while most of America is covered with snow, I have flowers and bees. That's Florida for you.

Now on to the Orly pictures!

 

So pretty pretty.  I feel weird saying this nail polish "Can you get 'we' for me?". I think I want to wear 'we' today". Sounds so weird!!!!!

Now, off to study for one final exam for this semester. So close to being done!!! Only one more class and freedom to enjoy winter break. Toodles!!!

NOTD: It's a classic

While on my quest to try out Orly's different versions of the french manicure, I decided to stick with the classics today.

Here are the products I used, in the order I used them:

Base coat: Beauty Secrets Base Coat (been using this for awhile. Have to say, it's a really good base coat)
Base color: Essie Adore-A-Ball - To whiten my nails, I used a very sheer coat of this bad boy
Tip color: 2 coats of Orly French Tip Pointe Blanche
Top color: Essie Sugar Daddy - very sheer coat
Top coat: Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

I really like this combination for a french tip. Adore-A-Ball really whitened my nail, and made it look really clean, and prefect. I free hand the manicure, I find it more fun doing it this way. I wish I shaped my ring finger first though. It always seems to grow a weird shape.

Ok, this will be on my nails for a few days, I worked too hard on it to let it go! Till next time, toodles!

Trip to Sally's

I talked my husband into making a trip to Sally Beauty Supply. I needed a new base coat, my Essie one was on it's last leg, and it was at that gummy stage. Time for a new bottle!!! I had my eyes on that huge bottle of Beauty Secrets base coat. 2.5 fl oz for $6? Yup, I'll take it. I hope it's actually good. I will say that the brush has the potential to intimidate some.

Seche Vite on the left, Beauty Secrets on the right.

I didn't have an issue using it, but those who are unsure of using their none dominant hand will have issues with it, for sure.

I also bought 5 nail polishes there, all (but one) from the different Christmas/winter collections:

China Glaze Let It Snow collection:

$7.99 for the box

Here is what was in the box:

China Glaze Poinsettia

China Glaze Twinkle Lights (Christmas in a bottle!!)

China Glaze Holly-Day

China Glaze Champagne Bubbles (not sure why it's crooked)

Orly Holiday Soireé collection:

Orly Oui

It even came with a little nail file!!! So cute. I'm applying this one today, so expect a review tomorrow.




This one is an oldy, but goody:

China Glaze Peachy Keen (2010 Up & Away collection)

"the now box"

Ok, I realized that some nail polish would have to get the boot out of my box. Here is the chaos that resulted in me dumping everything on the floor.

Not a lot, but it's all that fits in the box. It's made out of lime green and purple plaid duct tape, with ribbon bows taped onto both sides of the box, all stuck to a really really, and I mean more than a decade old, box that used to hold miscellaneous stuff. The white thing is a foam insert that came in a case of Ulta face brushes. It fit perfectly!

Side note: No sure why Mint Candy Apple looks so blue... It's the only "blue" in the picture. So strange.

The varnish I knew that wold make the cut; my top coat, base coat, quick dry, silver shatter, and my 2 varnishes that I use for french tip (Essie's Marshmallow and Sugar Daddy)

The finish product:

The varnishes that got the boot :'(

L to R: Essie Too Too Hot, Essie Meet Me At Sunset, and Ulta Noel (bought at Target)

To be honest, I don't even like Noel. It's ridiculously streaky, and needs to meet the trashcan. The other two are summer colors, and it's hard to put them away, but I have to in order to make room. So sad, I love those colors.

That's me "the now box". See you guys in a few days! Toodles!


***NOTE: This was all taken before I went on a major nail polish shopping spree. Look out for an updated picture!